The present invention relates to a new and distinct perennial variety of Vaccinium hybrid (Southern Highbush Blueberry), which has been given the variety denomination of ‘Ridley 1212’. Its market class is that of a fruiting plant. ‘Ridley 1212’ is intended for use as fresh fruit for shipping, customer pick and processing markets and as a home garden plant.
The new Vaccinium hybrid cultivar is a selection resulting from seedlings produced in a breeding programme of Vaccinium at Lindendale, NSW, Australia in 2009 from the controlled pollination of seed parent ‘M07-18-03’ (unpatented) with pollen parent ‘M05-05-04’ (unpatented). The new cultivar was discovered and selected as a single plant within a population of 100 resulting Vaccinium hybrid plants from this controlled pollination in 2012 in a commercial field plantation environment at Lindendale, New South Wales, Australia. Selection criteria was a combination of strong plant growth vigor and open bush, upright to semi-upright plant growth habit, low chilling requirement, early to medium time of flowering and fruit ripening, medium to large, sweet, firm, crisp fruit suited to handling, ripe berries able to shake off leaving unripe fruit on the bush making machine harvesting possible, desirable tasting berries and small picking scar.
The selection was subsequently evaluated for a number of years at the commercial farms at Lindendale, New South Wales, Australia.